Aug 15, 2012

Re: Joyce 114: Nets and Shells

Comments

Loved your mention of Samphire. Are you aware of the relatively new County Park just outside of Dover made from the tailings of the Tunnel Dig? A new piece of England. It was named Samphire Hoe, after a contest in which a schoolgirl (if I remember correctly) suggested it, citing that same passage from King Lear.

I discovered it by accident when I needed a place to pull off in order to read the instructions of my rented Astra - first time driving in England - so I could figure out how to turn on the air conditioner.

Oh - I knew there was something else. For your other listeners who haven't found this yet - I have you bookmarked right next to this link: http://www.geoffwilkins.net/wiki/Ulysses.pdf so I can follow along. Right click in the upper lefthand corner, and choose "Navigation Pane Buttons." You'll see an open book at the top. Click on that, and you can scroll to the page you (Delaney) are on. Right now that would be page 35 toward the bottom.

I loved this passage. The word 'stogged' is apt and beautiful yet it is a word seldom heard.
The line 'a pocket of seaweed....' is missing from my Penguin 1969 edition.
Thanks Frank for the King Lear refs, I haven't seen it 12 times but at least twice and I am ashamed to say I didn't realise that Lear's son was only pretending to be atop of the cliff. I must pay more careful attention.
Thanks Barbara for posting the text it will save my book from falling apart.
Paul

In Homer, king Menelaus and his men, half-buried in sand and covered with fresh sealskins, are nearly overcome by the stench of their disguise as they lie in wait for Proteus. Eidothea gives them relief by rubbing ambrosia under their noses. In this week's passage, Stephen encounters “sewage breath” from the sand that sucks at his feet, then notes the stogged porterbottle. It struck me as a nifty bit of correspondence to a very specific detail from the Odyssey, another of Joyce's digs at his “island of great thirst,” and a detail that would have shot past me if I weren't re-reading slowly and carefully in emulation of Mr. Delaney. Thank you, Frank.

I'm missing a lot of this episodes text in my Modern Library edition. I have the Gabler, the 1922, as well as the Modern Library edition, which i use to I write in. Does anyone know if Frank uses the Gabler edition as a default when he reads?